"People are under the assumption that it cost too much to recycle," said Adrienne Simoneau , chair of the Recycle Otero County volunteer program. "But the truth is, it costs too much not to recycle."

Simoneau has been working with the ROC volunteer program since it was established in 2010. She said the program has been doing well, but that there are still people who don't fully understand just how vital recycling is to the community and the world.

According to Simoneau, the ROC has saved millions of British Thermal Units since the program began. She explained that BTU is the amount of energy required to heat one gallon of water by one degree Fahrenheit.

Simoneau said recycling helps reserve energy, and being more energy efficient is important because it saves the world's energy resources such as natural gas, oil and water.

She added that the amount of water it takes to create one ton of paper was 24,000 gallons of water, 3,688 pounds of wood chips, 216 pounds of lime, 360 pounds of salt cake and 76 pounds of ash.

"That's a large amount of water to create one ton of paper," she said "It takes much less to simply recycle the paper we already have."

"Tin cans, pie plates and old cookie sheets that you don't use any more are all recyclable," she said. "All the metal that gets recycled is turned into new appliances. So let us recycle them and the recycled material will become your next car. "

She said people don't always realize just how much they can recycle in their own home.

"Plastic No. 2, also known as high-density polyethylene, can be found in most homes," she said. "People don't think of how many they actually have, but detergent bottles, shampoo bottles and hand lotion bottles are all recyclable. These types of plastics get turned into things like playground equipment.

"A lot of our school playgrounds are using high-density polyethylene recycled plastic," she said. "High density indicates that it is a good, tough material and that is why it's good for playground equipment."

She said recycling also reduces greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere. According to Simoneau, the ROC has reduced 645 metric tons of carbon dioxide and 176 metric tons of carbon monoxide.

Simoneau said one of the main goals of the ROC is educating people about what to recycle and the value of it.

"We want to inform people that recycling is helpful to the environment and that they can recycle right here in the community," she said. "We have a great recycling center for people to use."

The La Luz Recycling Center is located at the La Luz Transfer Station, 33 Gravel Pit Road in La Luz.

District 2 Commissioner Susan Flores applied for the grant that built the facility. The county was awarded the $309,820 grant through the New Mexico Recycling Coalition in late 2010. The grant was funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

The funding supports recycling through the hub and spoke model, a system with a central processing facility, or hub, that services spoke locations, which are basically recycling bins placed at various locations for the convenience of the public.